Alzheimer’s disease
World Alzheimer’s Day
World Alzheimer’s day is dedicated on 21st September every year to create awareness among people on Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. This infographic is created on World Alzheimer Day to educate Alzheimer disease patients, families, friends and caregivers.
What is Alzheimer’s disease?
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common kind of dementia. It is a brain disorder with progressive memory loss and declining thinking abilities. This disease destroys the brain cells that cause cognitive state, memory changes, erratic behavior and loss of body functions. This memory loss disease gradually worsens as time passes and the person deteriorates.
Alzheimer’s disease mostly affects elderly people. The population of elderly people is rising in India and worldwide. Hence there is a need to create awareness to help the patient, their families, friends and caregivers to know more about this type of dementia and give the best patient care.
Alzheimer’s disease symptoms
Warning Signs & Symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease
One of the foremost common early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease is an issue in the basic cognitive processes and forgets recent events. Alzheimer’s disease patient forgets the name of individuals like an old friend, address, even name of the roads and basic usual things.
1) Mood changes
2) Challenges in problem-solving
3) Difficulty completing usual tasks
4) Confusion
5) Lose track of the date, time or place
6) Misplace things
7) Withdraw themselves from social and leisure activities
Alzheimer’s disease causes
The exact cause of Alzheimer’s disease is not yet known. Certain complex events occurring in the brain appear to be Alzheimer’s disease cause.
Alzheimer’s disease treatment
There is no known cure for this declined cognition and memory loss disease. Researchers believe that early detection is important. It helps caregivers in handling the patient better and provide appropriate Alzheimer’s disease treatment. Timely recognition of the disease and intervention can curb the rise in Alzheimer disease.
Tips for Prevention of Alzheimer’s disease
Alzheimer’s patients should keep themselves occupied. They should stay busy doing activities in the area of mental, physical, social and recreational activities namely:
- Read
- Write anything to keep them occupied
- Play indoor games such as crosswords, puzzles, scrabble and chess
- Play musical instruments
- Take part in adult education courses
- Swim
- Group sport, such as playing table tennis, tennis, badminton and so on
- Regular Walks preferably in groups (Avoid isolation)
- Meditate and do yoga daily
This memory loss disease progression could be slowed down if these tips are followed religiously.
What is the MIND diet?
The MIND diet is a hybrid between the Mediterranean Diet and the DASH diet. It is an abbreviation for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay. The MIND diet has been attributed to improve cognitive thinking, lower the risk and slow the progression of Alzheimer disease—the leading cause of dementia.
Researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, IL, and Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, MA, published results from an observational study that reports that modifying a patient’s dietary intake could significantly lower the risk of developing Alzheimer disease. The researchers combined two dietary plans—the Mediterranean and DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diets—that have previously shown to lower the risk of hypertension, heart attack, and stroke.
The traditional Mediterranean dietary pattern includes mainly whole, minimally processed plant foods including cereal grains, legumes, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and fish with small amounts of meat, milk, and dairy products and a regular modest amount of alcohol. The DASH diet emphasizes fruit, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products and includes whole grains, poultry, fish, and nuts, and is reduced in fats, red meat, sweets, and sugar-containing beverages.
Combining the two diets, the MIND diet emphasizes natural, plant-based foods, specifically promoting an increase in the consumption of berries and green leafy vegetables, with limited intakes of animal-based and high saturated fat foods.
The MIND diet has fifteen dietary components (10 brain-healthy and five unhealthy foods)
Brain healthy foods:
• green leafy vegetables;
• other vegetables;
• nuts;
• berries;
• beans;
• whole grains;
• fish;
• poultry;.
• olive oil; and
• wine.
Brain Unhealthy foods:
• red meats;
• butter and stick margarine
• cheese;
• pastries and sweets; and
• Fried or fast foods
In addition, the general guidelines for the MIND diet are eating at least three servings of whole grains, a salad and one other vegetable, and a glass of wine each day. In addition, nuts are used as a snack on most days and beans every other day. Poultry and berries are recommended at least twice a week and fish at least once a week. It is important to restrict the intake of the “unhealthy food groups” from the MIND diet,” especially butter (less than 1 tablespoon a day), cheese and fried or fast food (less than 1 serving in a week for any of the three).
Does MIND diet improve dementia?
The MIND diet (Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay) has been attributed to improved cognitive thinking, lowers the risk and slows the progression of Alzheimer’s disease—the leading cause of dementia. The researchers cited in the Chicago-based research study showed that the MIND diet lowered the risk of Alzheimer disease by as much as “53% in participants who strictly followed the diet, and by approximately 35% in those who followed it moderately well.”
More research is needed to confirm these results; however, using this dietary pattern approach seems to be a promising strategy to improve cognitive decline in the older population.
Alzheimer Disease Research References
- Alzheimer’s Association. 2015 Alzheimer’s disease facts and figures. http://www.alz.org/facts/downloads/facts_figures_2015.pdf. Accessed July 24, 2015.
- van de Rest, O., Berendsen, A.A., Haveman-Niles, A., and deGroot, L.C. Dietary patterns, cognitive decline, and dementia: A systematic review. Adv Nutr. 2015; 6: 154–168
- Morris MC, Tangney CC, Wang Y, Sacks FM, Bennett DA, Aggarwal NT. MIND diet associated with reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s disease [published online ahead of print February 11, 2015]. Alzheimers Dement. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jalz.2014.11.009.
- Wengreen, H., Munger, R.G., Cutler, A. et al. Prospective study of Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension- and Mediterranean-style dietary patterns and age-related cognitive change: The Cache County Study on Memory, Health and Aging. Am J Clin Nutr. 2013; 98: 1263–1271
- Di Fiore N. Diet may help prevent Alzeimer’s: MIND diet rich in vegetables, berries, whole grains, nuts. Rush University Medical Center website. https://www.rush.edu/news/diet-may-help-prevent-alzheimers. Accessed July 24, 2015.
Pallavi Pinge is a Clinical Nutritionist and Dietitian | Content Director & Editor for health websites | has a passion for digital health and enjoys promoting health and wellness. She’s the founder and director of Ambrosia Wellness, where she provides personalized nutrition counseling, education, and coaching to individuals with various health conditions. You can follow her on her social media channels below to stay tuned in with the latest in health and wellness | Health Blog | Contact her for appointments |
